16 February 2007

Conservatives are anal in the classic sense of the word, aren’t they? It’s that automatic, knee-jerk desire for propriety, adherence to ritual, sublimated longing for approval. It’s interesting that, in a conservative mind, all innovation is wrong–until it stops being innovation and enters the cultural mainstream. It’s almost as if they could not make up their own minds as to what is good or not good–or, at least, what they themselves like and dislike–unless they have the (dead) weight of history and the hallowed sanction of tradition on their side. Despite their individualistic claims they so often seem to be nothing but poor little populists, indecisive and almost uncapable of any action unsanctioned. Poor lost puppies they are. We should pity them, teach them complex activities (like critical thought), encourage them to use their imagination and not be bound by what dead ancestors say is okay to do, think, feel, dream about.